In the following essay, Mills concentrates on the characterization of Grim and compares him to earlier examples of the brutal fisherman type.

When Havelok first meets with the sons of Grim the fisherman, he gives them a vivid account of his early sufferings at the hands of Earl Godard, the regent into whose hands he had been committed. In this he lays particular stress on the fact that Grim had refused to carry out Godard's command that he should drown the boy:

'Deplike dede he him swere On boke, pat he sholde me bere Unto pe se and drenchen inne, And wolde taken on him pe sinne. But Grim was wis and swipe hende, Wolde he nouht his soule shende: Leuere was him, to be for-sworen, Pan drenchen me and ben for-loren...